From 3-8:30 PM, the Trans Chicago Empowerment Center (2753 W. Division) is hosting a Halloween edition of Pillars, its marketplace for trans BIPOC vendors. Along with tarot readings, poetry books, and handmade wares for sale, there will also be free gender-affirming nail services for trans individuals. Yecy, a local Latinx nail artist, will be providing single-color gel manicures from 4-8 PM. (Sorry, no acrylics, designs, or fill-ins!) Throughout the event, HIV, hepatitis C, and STI screenings will be available as well as cheese danishes (quesitos) courtesy of Chucherías Tropical Creations. Get spooky and come out! (MC)
For almost two years, rapper and comedian Jeremey “Mohawk” Johnson was on house arrest after participating in an August 2020 protest to defund the police. Not only has his case demonstrated the high price some pay for free speech, but it has also highlighted extraordinary gaps in the judicial process, including the burden those on house arrest face since 80 percent of ankle-bracelet alerts are false alarms. Now three months free and riding high on a new single (which Reader senior writer Leor Galil covered for our current issue), Johnson makes his return to live music tonight at the Promontory (5311 S. Lake Park West), where he and Davis the Dorchester Bully open for Cleveland musician Eliy Orcko. Tickets are $20 ($15 in advance) and open to those 18 and older. The show starts at 7 PM. (MC)
The independent professional wrestling group WrestlePro visits Logan Square Auditorium tonight (2539 N. Kedzie) to present Champions of Hope, an evening of wrestling and sports entertainment featuring nine matches. Proceeds from admission fees and a 50/50 door raffle benefit Chicago’s Hope For Us Network, an organization focused on suicide prevention and creating strategy and policy around mental health care. The bell for the first match rings at 7 PM, and advance tickets are available at Eventbrite. (SCJ)
Superhero origin stories are everywhere—but what about the origins of the creators? Chicago playwright Mark Pracht tackles the tangled history behind who gets the credit for bringing Batman to the world in The Mark of Kane, the first in a planned trilogy of plays about the world of comic books. Collaborators Bob Kane and Bill Finger first introduced the Caped Crusader in Detective Comics #27, which debuted on March 30, 1939. But Kane got sole credit in perpetuity from DC; Finger’s granddaughter, Athena, had to fight to get her grandfather credited by Warner Brothers (parent company of DC) on film and television projects involving Batman going forward. As Pracht told Reader contributor Josh Flanders, “Bill Finger and Bob Kane is like Cain and Abel . . . artists conflicting with each other.” The show, directed by Terry McCabe, is in previews tonight and tomorrow at 7:30 PM at City Lit Theater (1020 W. Bryn Mawr) and has its press opening Sunday at 3 PM. Tickets for previews are $30 ($25 seniors, $12 students, and military); during the regular run (10/30-12/4) tickets are $34 ($29 seniors, $12 students, and military). Information and reservations at citylit.org. (KR)
